Ripple and Absa Bank said in October 2025 that they will work together to store digital assets for large clients in South Africa. The service offers pension funds, asset managers and banks a vault that meets banking rules while keeping tokens safe. The partnership marks another step in Ripple’s plan to expand in markets with clear laws.
Ripple already owns Metaco and holds over sixty licences worldwide, positioning the company to support regulated custody for institutions. Absa will deploy Ripple’s custody software, combining Multi-Party Computation (MPC) with certified Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) to secure private keys.
MPC splits a private key into several parts so no single person holds the full key, reducing single points of failure. HSMs are tamper-proof hardware vaults that keep keys offline, adding an extra layer of protection and compliance-grade controls for key storage and operations.
Demand is rising across Sub-Saharan Africa: digital assets held south of the Sahara grew 52% in the year to June 2025 and now exceed $200 billion. Absa sees the custody service as a gateway to tokenise real estate, invoices and bonds, and to connect clients to DeFi markets while following bank risk rules.
Ripple expands global custody footprint
In terms of institutional adoption, a bank-branded vault helps firms that must show KYC and AML checks, reducing paperwork hurdles and aligning processes with regulated standards.
For the products, issuers can create or hold tokenised assets and stablecoins, including Ripple’s RLUSD, under a framework designed for compliant issuance and custody.
In security, shared keys via MPC, together with hardware vaults, lower the chance of loss or theft, aligning operational security with banking expectations.
The October statement starts the commercial phase. The next step is to open the platform to institutions and to comply with CARF as well as local KYC and AML rules, positioning the partners to meet regulated demand for digital asset custody in South Africa.
